VIDEO: Boston, LA, SFC and DC in running for 2024 Games

Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington are the cities still in the running for a possible U.S. bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.

A person briefed on the U.S. Olympic Committee's decision-making process told The Associated Press on Friday that all four cities are still in consideration. The person requested anonymity because the USOC has not made an official announcement.

Los Angeles hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. The other three cities would be first-time hosts.

But there's an arduous and expensive process facing any potential bid city before the International Olympic Committee awards the Games in 2017.

Over the next six months, the USOC will decide whether it even wants to try to host the Olympics. The last two U.S. candidates both suffered humiliating fourth-place finishes: New York for the 2012 Olympics and Chicago for the 2016 Games that went to Rio de Janeiro

If the USOC goes ahead with the bid, the U.S. city would find itself in a spirited battle. Paris, Rome, Doha and Istanbul are among those that could enter the race. The IOC has also long stated a desire to bring the Olympics to Africa for the first time.

Some inside the USOC feel the time is right for a bid, now that the federation has made progress in shoring up some of its international relationships, which were frayed in 2009 when Chicago finished last in the voting for the 2016 Games.

The USOC is waiting to see what sort of changes the IOC might make in the bidding process when it meets later this year. New IOC president Thomas Bach is asking the committee to build a new roadmap for the Olympics, and the way the IOC handles bids is expected to be on that agenda.

"We clearly want to see output from that working group and what changes are adopted before we push the 'go' button on 2024," USOC chairman Larry Probst said earlier this week.